Monday, November 4

We started the day bouncing around in the Cumberland Island Anchorage after spending a trying night at anchor. The wind and current were opposing each other and Changes couldn’t figure out where to be, so she was just everywhere! I woke up about every 2 hours. You know how it is; one of those sleep, wake up, look at the clock and MAN it’s only, fill in the blank, time! It was that kind of night. Finally I gave it up Looking outside it seemed that we were getting TOO close to MV The Susanne so I called Phil to look. It seemed that we were still in the box of breadcrumbs on our GPS so he went back down and I stayed up too alert to sleep checking the GPS and our location frequently. Finally I went back to sleep then woke about 8am to 2 short blasts on the horn from MV The Susanne who thought that we were dragging. We were close, but not as close as we had been last night and didn’t think we were dragging, but we wanted to get to out there anyway to get to somewhere more comfortable so I quickly threw on clothes over my pajamas and Phil started the engine at 810am, raising anchor at 832am with Phil at the helm so that he could use the engine to reverse since the anchor chain was under the boat. If we thought it was bad where we were, the waves were worse where we had originally anchored.

We called Tiger Point Marina and there were no beds at the Inn, so we decided to join our friends at Lang Marina in St. Marys. By 836am the head sail was out and the engine was off, not wanting to stress the engine. BTW, no water in the bilge yet. The winds started off at 11kts from the NNE but quickly built into the upper teens as we moved downwind. We had a nice downwind to Broad reach sail until we rounded the corner on St. Marys River to go past the green mark when we had a reach that turned into a close reach. After having to STEER the boat all morning, I remember again how easy it is to steer Changes upwind. She’s a dream then, hardly having to move the wheel. By 954am we rolled up the head sail and turned on the engine so that we could hail Langs Marina and come in to dock. Phil did a great job docking in the rising tide and we pulled up smoothly while our friends grabbed the lines and I jumped off to handle the spring line. We don’t really know how far we went as had the wind instruments, speedo and GPS on to monitor the situation. According to them we had gone 16.96nm boat and 36.7nm GPS, but that’s from sailing at anchor. We think that we actually went 7-8 nm.

Late morning Pat Boyle came to our boat to introduce himself noticing that we were from Cleveland and he’s from Edgewater Yacht Club where he raced Stilettos cataramans. When we heard about the stilettos, we asked if he knew Cptn Dave Block. Yes after seeing a picture of him. He was the guy from New York. He had bought boat his boat, I believe. Pat is a great guy and offered to take Phil to get the water pump in Fernadina Beach. We rented a car from Enterprise splitting the cost with our friends. Enterprise dropped it off at the Marina. While Phil was gone, Judy, Steve and I went to a few stores and scoped out the laundry facilities. By the time we got back, Phil had changed the water pump.

We were both tired, so warmed up chicken thighs, cooked potatoes and warmed up, gasp, canned corn. Then we gathered up lots of laundry, me taking advantage of a car to transport the laundry, so took most of the towels and sheets with mattress pad. Judy and I left the guys at home and got there just before 8pm. By 10pm we were done and came back to the boat. We didn’t go to sleep until about 1130pm as I needed some wind down time.

Tuesday, November 5

I have been having a little problem with my iPad’s home button not working all the time, so after showers we all four went into Javksonville, FL first to the Apple Store and then to West Marine. I have been exploring all the options and after getting an immediate appt when the Apple Store opened, decided to keep the iPad that I have after being reassured that the work arounds to the home button not working on an intermittent basis would continue to work even after we leave the US. This button not working sometime is not critical unlike the on and off button not working. I have heard of the Lifeproof covers, and after seeing them at West Marine, decided to make the investment to buy one so that the salt water doesn’t destroy this one. Like Phil says, I can get the 128Gb iPad when I’m working again.

After lunch at Panera Bread and arriving home, Phil started working on adjusting the one valve out of spec on the engine and adjusting the stuffing box to leak less. We have found water under the teak grate in the head even though the hatch was closed to the recent rain. We ran the electric bilge pump only 1 min yesterday after arriving and a short time this morning. Oh and while Phil was in the sail locker, he examined the manual bilge pump which looks good, but still isn’t pumping water. The 1 1/2″ hose is attached to the pump with 5200 so now have to think about that. If it’s not one thing it’s another! The life of living on a boat.

We had a potluck dinner on Bentana, Lorraine contributing rutabaga and mashed potatoes. Steve made a good nacho cheese dip and steak and salad. We talked about leaving tomorrow about 9am and possible anchoring locations for the next few days. The winds are going to be light tomorrow and Thursday then in increase again on Friday in the 20’s from the N to NNE, not a good place to be in the mooring field of St. Augustine. We’ll either anchor before St. Augustine or see if there is a slip at a Marina. I want to see my friend Liz L. and make a trip to Sailors Exchange before we leave. We are trying to get to Melbourne, FL for the SSCA Gam by 11/13 or 11/14 at the latest.

We are so thankful to have such a positive response to our post yesterday! Thanks for all the suggestions and expression of concern! We are also thinking we need to get further south. It’s been gray, breezy and dreary for too long. Need some warmer weather and sunshine. We’ve commented to ourselves a few times that we are glad that we left early this year. It would not have been fun to be in the Chesapeake mid October.